Speakers

MC - Jonathan McCrea

Jonathan McCrea is a multi-award-winning TV and radio broadcaster and founder of Whipsmart Media, a communications consultancy based in Dublin. He is the founder of science communications conference SCI:COM and a highly regarded keynote speaker on future technologies and communication strategies.

With 10 years of experience in broadcasting and journalism, Jonathan is also the creator of “Futureproof”, Newstalk’s flagship science programme that has won 7 national radio awards in the 7 years it has been on air. He presents “Ten Things To Know About”, the critically acclaimed 6-part TV series for RTE that showcases Irish research and previously TV3’s big-budget studio quiz show “The Lie” that aired in 2014/5.

Keynote - fRED KENt Project for public spaces new york

Fred Kent is a leading authority on revitalizing city spaces and one of the foremost thinkers in livability, smart growth and the future of the city. As founder and president of Project for Public Spaces, he is known throughout the world as a dynamic speaker and prolific ideas man. Since 1975, Fred has worked on hundreds of projects, including Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center, and Times Square in New York City. In addition to projects, Fred has led trainings across the world for audiences such as the Urban Redevelopment Agency and the National Parks Board in Singapore.

Before founding PPS, Fred studied with Margaret Mead and worked with William H. Whyte on the Street Life Project, assisting in observations and film analysis of corporate plazas, urban streets, parks and other open spaces in New York City.

Most recently, Fred has lead some of the largest projects at PPS including Cape Town Waterfront, and Harvard Square for Cambridge and Harvard. With over 150,000 people around the world following the work of PPS through emails, Twitter and Facebook, he has witnessed interest in Placemaking grow exponentially.

Fred has taken over half a million photographs of public spaces and their users, which have appeared in exhibits, publications and articles.

Jamie cudden- Smart Dublin

Jamie Cudden is Dublin City Council’s smart city programme manager. He is responsible for the development of a smart city strategy and framework to address priority challenges that the city faces. This includes transport, environment monitoring, dealing with extreme weather events, energy efficiency and engagement with cities.

Cudden has led major initiatives such as the Intel Sensing City project, IBM smarter cities collaboration and the Dublin Dashboard. He is also a member of Dublinked, which is Dublin’s internationally recognised open-data initiative.

CLAIRE PENNY-IBM Watson IOT

Claire is the Global Industry Leader for Watson IoT for Buildings, responsible for delivering solutions and innovation to worldwide building users and operators. In this role she gets to combine all her passion, experience and learning from the past 16 years and focus it into BIM (Building Information Modelling) and IOT (Internet of Things) in the operational phase of a building. This combination means that she can add value to customers, whilst working and collaborating with brilliant teams (internal and external), to develop and deliver cognitive building solutions.

She regularly shares her knowledge and passion through public speaking and social media activities. Delivering presentations on topics such as Cognitive Buildings, IoT, BIM, IWMS, Energy Optimisation and Environmental Affairs.

Claire’s PhD was attained from Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK. Her M.Sc, attained from University of London, Wye College, Kent and B.Sc (hons) from Liverpool Polytechnic.

KIERAN hARTE- UBER

Kieran Harte became General Manager for Uber in Ireland in March 2015. Previously, Kieran has worked for some of Ireland's best known digital brands including Daft.ie and IrishTimes.com. Originally hailing from Australia, Kieran has years of working with disruptive digital business models across the world.

Uber is evolving the way the world moves. By seamlessly connecting riders to drivers through their apps, Uber makes cities more accessible, opening up more possibilities for riders and more business for drivers. From the first ride in 2010 to launches in hundreds of cities today, Uber's rapidly expanding global presence continues to bring people and their cities closer.

Niall Moran - Microsoft

Niall Moran is the technical lead at Microsoft Ireland and runs a team of digital transformation specialists. This team’s job is to help customers transform their businesses with advanced technologies like Cloud, Data Analytics and IoT. Niall has worked in the IT industry for 20 years now as an architect, software engineer, technical advisor to startups, CTO and most recently a technical evangelist for Microsoft.

Niall will talk about Microsoft’s CityNext program which defines a partnership model in building a liveable future for our cities and urban environments. Niall will also showcase an example of this: the Croke Park Smart Stadium project.

barry napier - cubic telecom

Barry Napier acquired Cubic Telecom at the end of 2008. After more than 18 years in the telecommunications world, this is now Barry’s third merger and acquisition. Barry has been responsible for setting the corporate strategy of Cubic Telecom, relocating the HQ and selecting key industry leaders and innovators by expanding the team 10 fold, having the ability to clearly communicate the vision of the company in order to inspire staff, investors and customers.

Leading the investment, Barry and his team have secured over $12 million with Qualcomm Inc, Enterprise Ireland, TPS investments and ACT Ventures. Barry has directed Cubic Telecom to become a licensed GSM carrier and GSMA member with agreements with AT&T, China Unicom, Digicel, Everything Everywhere, iPass, Sprint, PCCW and Vodafone.

On a separate vertical Cubic Telecom has now been singled out by many of the top Fortune 100 tablet and notebook manufacturers as their key enabler for mobile connectivity. Barry’s ability to see future trends is invaluable for steering a clear strategy and capitalizing on future opportunities. This is especially important in the constantly evolving technology industry where Barry needs to determine which changes will have long-term impact and which are merely fads with little real value.

Barry’s last merger and acquisition was from the Nasdaq listed Brightpoint Inc. Barry lead the acquisition of the Irish arm (Brightpoint Ireland) at the end of 2003 and steered the company from 15 staff and $35 million p/a to over $200 million p/a and over 80 team members by 2009 and was listed as one of the top 300 Irish companies. During this period Barry lead the team to ink deals with Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Telefonica, Hutchinson 3 and retailers Carphone Warehouse and Tesco.

PADDY CONLON-CBRE ireland

Paddy Conlon is an Executive Director and Head of Tenant Advisory and Office Agency and sits on the CBRE Ireland Executive Committee. Paddy joined CBRE in May 2002 and has a wide and varied level of experience in a number of teams including Valuations, Professional Services and Office Agency.

Since January 2009, Paddy has been heading up the Tenant Advisory team in Dublin. Utilising the experience gained in both the Offices team and Professional Services allows him to provide specific advice to a range of corporate office occupiers.

GERARD CORCORAN-Huawei

Gerard Corcoran is an Account Director for Huawei Enterprise Business Unit in Western Europe with responsibility for Smart and Safe Cities.He has over 35 years experience in the ICT industry with special focus on New and Emerging Technologies applied to the development of Smart and Sustainable Cities.He has contributed to the development of industry solutions within Huawei and the broader Smart City Ecosystem including TMForum, GSMA, ITU and WBA.He has successfully completed Communications, Networking, Consulting, Systems Integration, Managed Services and Outsourcing engagements in Europe, Asia and the US.Prior to joining Huawei in 2008 he had a senior solutions position in EDS (HP), A.T.Kearney and Cap Gemini.

As Director of Professional Services at Sonalake, Michal plays a central role in the delivery of many of the company's software solutions to its diverse customer base. With a particular expertise and focus in the field of integrated IT service management, he has actively cooperated with a number of local and central authorities providing a range of community infrastructure services, such as e-government, intelligent and sustainable transportation, security communications systems and social broadband access. Combined with his private keen interest and contribution to local development initiatives, the space of Smart Cities has recently become his natural professional focus.

Sonalake helps companies and communities to innovate using software, reinforcing existing know-how and data with cutting-edge analytics and visualisation technologies. The result brings new intelligence, insight and automation to business and social domains.

SHARON SCALLY-Sandyford bid

Sharon Scally is Principal of Amorys Solicitors in Beacon Court for over 30 years and is a co-founder of LAW – Lawyers Associated Worldwide. Sharon specialises in corporate litigation and family law and is also co-author of ‘Divorce – A practical guide to divorce in Ireland’.

Sharon has been proactively involved with SBDA and is a founder member of the Sandyford BID Company. Following a successful plebiscite last year Sharon became the first Chair of the new BID Company which was established on January 1st this year.

sven spollen - behrens - sandyford bid

Having worked on urban regeneration projects in Dún Laoghaire town, Sligo and Sandyford, Sven has in depth and first-hand knowledge of how local authorities, landowners, retailers & other local businesses, investors, residents and other stakeholders need to work together in order to achieve a substantial uplift in the local economy and create jobs and vitality. Sven has a Masters Degree in Economics and was CEO of trade associations in Berlin & Brussels and is co-founder of Towns Matter, a consultancy specialised in urban renewal and town centre revival. Over the last three years he managed the application process and campaign that led to the successful implementation of the Business Improvement District (BID) in Dún Laoghaire. He was also involved in the setting up of Sligo BID and is the CEO of the Sandyford BID Company.

Pat Gayer - Selc Ireland

Pat Gayer leads SELC Ireland Limited. SELC - Smart Efficient Lighting Control does exactly what it says and delivers street light controls and smart cities for free in the process . Pat has worked in the electronics industry for 25 years as an automation engineer, sales director and SME owner. He has helped transform SELC from a controls company to a leading smart cities company.

Pat will talk about SELC’s program which covers both smart utility and smart cities markets. Pat will showcase their 500,000 street lights project in Florida and the 20,000 street lights Copenhagen city project.

VIEW PAT'S PRESENTATION HERE

Tracy Baldwin - Amazon

Tracy Baldwin is Sustainability Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS). She focuses on AWS’ sustainability strategy as well as helping public sector and commercial customers utilize the AWS Cloud to make progress on a wide range of innovative sustainability initiatives. Tracy has been with AWS since 2012, and previously spent 10 years in the technology industry in Ireland, working with organizations across all sectors. Tracy holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s in Sustainability Management from Columbia University.